My husband will be joining us to share some of his photography.  Though a man of few words, he has a wonderful creative mind and artistic vision.  He has recently completed a degree in Digital Media Technology, and is eager to share his skills and talents from behind the lens.

Also, it is rather ironic that although Owen and I have previously noted our lack of desire for recognition on our former blogging incarnations, we have kindly been recognized by one of our readers, 8 Kids and a Business, with two awards.   I graciously accept them in the spirit in which they are given.  I am humbled daily at the response we have received in the last three months of this new blogging venture.  I have done no personal promotion, other than leaving a comment on Owen’s recent Confident Catholic blog that I’d decided to return to blogging again, and I’m thrilled to be renewing old acquaintances and meeting new friends.  I hope my other co-authors will help me out on nominating others.  They’re welcome to share facts about themselves, as well.

The awards:  

Seven facts about me:

1. I play Clarinet in our local community band.
2. My other hobbies include knitting, crocheting, and sewing.
3. Six of our eight children were born at home, including the twins (and one of those other two was a non-emergency transfer to the hospital during a planned home birth).
4. My mom is a twin, and I grew up always wanting twins.  Now that I have them, I wonder what in the world I was thinking.
5. I have lived in this house longer than in any one location in my life.  I’ve moved around more often than my husband whose family was actually in the military.(Mine was not!)
6. I have lived on both coasts (Oregon and Virginia), and now reside in the Midwest.
7. I enjoy playing video games with my husband.

Making lists is really difficult without a functioning enter key, so I’m going to keep my nomination list short and sweet and just a single paragraph. I must nominate Christi at Our Baker’s Dozen, who has such sweet and encouraging posts about raising her family, the Divine Office.org podcast team, because they have truly impacted my soul in a substantial way, Jimmy Akin, because his essays expressed the teachings of the church in such a reasonable way that they made my conversion easy, Russ at Crossed the Tiber, for being a champion of the beauty of the Church, and being one of the first commenters here and actually remembering me from years ago!